Vegetable Breeding Working Group (VGBR)
VGBR is part of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)
Minutes (2004 meeting)
- Vegetable Breeding Working Group Business Meeting
- American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference
- Austin, TX
- Monday, 19 July 2004
In attendance: Chris Cramer, Mark Farnham, Roger Freeman, Becky Grube, Rebecca Grumet, Nihat Guner, Ryan Hayes, Mark Hutton, Maria Jenderek, Beiquan Mou, Jim Myers, Russell Nagata, Jim Nienhuis, Dennis Ray, Kathy Reitsma, Jay Scott, Janice Strachan, Yayeh Tarekegn.
1st order of business was Mary Peet, ASHS Research Vice-President, discussing the CSREES stakeholders meeting to take place prior to the 2005 annual conference in Las Vegas. The stakeholder’s meeting would help to determine funding areas and priorities for horticulture. Each working group is asked to develop a list of 5 top priorities and select one participant to present the groups priorities at the meeting. The meeting would be half day Sunday, 17 July 2005. Group chairperson or their representative would be the meeting participant.
2nd order of business was discussion on possible priorities for CSREES stakeholder meeting. The following priorities were suggested: funding to train future plant breeders, germplasm utilization and exploration, survey of crop science, have NRI grant only for classical breeding projects, breeding for sustainable and organic agriculture, and secure US food production.
3rd order of business was ASHS Colloquium for 2005. Jim Myers, Mikel Stevens and Linda Wessel Beaver developed program on ‘Breeding Vegetables in the Developing World’. Submission awaited Colloquium program committee approval and funding. (Jim Myers has received an email from Fred Davies, chair of the Continuing Education Committee indicating that the colloquium has been approved. Suggestion from the Committee was to substitute some non AVRDC speakers for one or two of the speaking slots.) Comments were made on the high percentage of speakers from AVRDC. Additional suggestions were made to get a graduate student from foreign country studying in the US to speak on their country’s needs, needs of NGO’s working in developing nations, and the important challenges plant breeders face in order to succeed. Myers reminded group that there was only $3,000 for the Colloquium. Corporate sponsorship was mentioned to help pay cost of getting speakers. Myers ask to get specific person contact information to him. If Colloquium is accepted, group of Myer, Beaver, Stevens, Grube and Nagata would work on final program.
4th order of business was suggestions on workshop topics. It was suggested that if the Colloquium topic is accepted, we forgo the workshop. If the colloquium topic is rejected, we would conduct a workshop on Breeding Vegetables in the Developing World, and would be a scaled down version of the Colloquium.
5th order of business was a discussion led by Jim Nienhuis on the history of the ASHS/CSSA Plant Breeding Symposium. It was noted that there is interest in the Symposium from CSSA and proposed that we get the Symposium running again for 2006. Possible topic was “Genomics, Hands-on Use”. Presentation was met with general agreement.
6th order of business was the Vegetable Breeding Award of Excellence. No nominations were received for 2004 by the deadline. Discussion on nominating deserving vegetable breeder for 2004 ensued. It was decided that nominations for 2004 would be called for by Mark Farnham with a 1 September 2004 deadline. Award winner would be notified, with the awarding of the plaque at the 2005 annual conference. It was mentioned that it was the duty of the committee chair-elect to get nominations by the deadline. Chair-elect will be Russell Nagata for 2005.
7th order of business was election of secretary. Ryan Hayes, USDA/ARS Salinas, was nominated by Jim Nienhuis and seconded by Dennis Ray. Vote in favor for Hayes was unanimous.
Web site for our working group: